Business blog

Pets and large family

If you have a large family, it’s important to take time to consider what pet will work in the busy household. As a mother of eight, I have been faced with choosing a pet for a large family on numerous occasions. Initially as a first time pet owner, my circumstances were different than they are now that my large family is around. The following paragraphs outline some of the aspects of pet ownership I’ve had to consider before taking the plunge and bringing an animal home to a busy household.

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Who’s Home?

I’ve had to consider things like which family member is home at certain times when choosing a pet. For a dog and cat it wasn’t too much of a problem, however, when I became a single working mom, a rabbit was out of the question. After looking into it, I found that having a rabbit was a bit more intense and I needed to be around more to monitor and guide my child in caring for it. I didn’t feel I could count on my older kids to manage this. Ultimately I had to tell my daughter we couldn’t swing a rabbit.

Busy Household

As the head of household for a large family, I’ve had to consider how busy and highly trafficked our house is. It wouldn’t be fair to have a smaller dog that was overwhelmed by the constant movement and noise level we have in our home. Bigger dog breeds seem to do well with us for this reason.

How Expensive?

It’s probably safe to say that if you have a large family these days, you’ll want to consider the cost of the pet initially as well as the maintenance of whatever pet you decide on. Anything exotic was pretty much out of our ballpark as a large family, although my ex-husband does have a pot belly pig at his house for the kids, however, these are not as expensive to take care of as some exotic fish and birds.

Exotic Animals

In our home, I didn’t think that having an exotic animal was a good decision base d on initial cost and ongoing maintenance. I think if I had more land and wasn’t a renter, I’d consider having a goat or two, and perhaps some chickens to keep the kids occupied and busy, but that’s not the case at this point.